a little taste of italy.: il notte trecolore.

translating into the night of the three colors. the 17th of march 2011 celebrates 150 years of the unification of italy. prior to this 150 years of 'peace' the regions of italy were nearly enemies. in italy's history 150 years is an extremely small segment of their life. i felt extremely privileged to be in florence during this critical celebration in italy's history. trecolore is a term translating to mean tri-colored or three colors, like the italian flag. this term parallels that of our term of stars and stripes for america's flag.

florence was decorated with flags around every street corner, hanging from windows and balconies, and these three crucial colors were represented in numerous ways. the whole city exposed their pride in different manners. from new gelato flavors consisting of pistachio, vanilla, and strawberry to green white and red window displays that caught the attention of people passing by. there was a buzz around the city of enthusiasm and anticipation for the evening's festivities. people filled the streets and piazzas, you could hardly walk from one side of a piazza to the other. beyond the point of movement we stood within the confines of piazza signoria where the firework show took place. we stood near the sculpture garden which was lit up along with the ponte vecchio, and the palazzo vecchio. music filled the air as vast amounts of people excitedly awaited the firework show to come.